NDP calls for a public review of Ontario group homes
New Democrats demand a public review of group home system in the wake of Star investigation.

thestar.com
July 6, 2015
By Richard J. Brennan

A New Democrat MPP is demanding a public review of group homes in the wake of a Star investigation revealing a pattern of serious problems that has gone unaddressed by the Liberal government for years.

NDP MPP Monique Taylor credited the newspaper on Monday for lifting the veil of secrecy on a provincial system that for too long has “failed” the children in its care.

“That’s why this weekend’s revelations about the extent of serious incidents in group homes are so disturbing,” the MPP for Hamilton Mountain told a news conference at Queen’s Park.

There are 3,300 children and youth in 484 group homes in Ontario, according to the ministry. Those homes, along with foster parents and children’s aid societies, generate almost 20,000 serious-occurrence reports filed province-wide every year.

The Star discovered from information obtained through a freedom of information request that there were 1,200 Toronto reports describing “serious occurrences” sent to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services in 2013. The reports note everything from medication errors to emotional meltdowns to deaths.

“The number of serious incidents involving children in group homes is truly staggering,” Taylor told reporters. “What’s even worse is that these numbers have never been calculated by this Liberal government...these reports are kept secret.”

“In fact, it took the media to do the government’s job for it and that’s a deeply embarrassing distinction for Premier (Kathleen) Wynne and the entire Liberal government.”

Minister of Children and Youth Services Minister Tracy MacCharles has promised to appoint a three-person panel to review problems involving children and youth for the most part in publicly funded, privately operated group homes. An announcement is expected later this week.

“I think it’s important to look to the advice of the experts in this case, not to politicians and political parties, as proposed by the NDP,” she said in an email statement. “We need to put party politics aside and do what’s best for the children in our care, because at the end of the day, I know we all have the same goal - positive outcomes for our youth.”

But Taylor noted that only a public review will give a clear picture of what needs to change, not a government-appointed body.

“It is clear that the government’s announcement 10 days ago was nothing more than an attempt to duck and dodge the disturbing revelations of a damning investigation of the government’s own failures,” she said, adding that a panel meeting behind closed doors “is not the solution that we or the children of this province deserve.”

“I am calling for a public review of the Child and Youth Residential Services, a review that includes MPPs from all parties working together to improve the services of children in care - a review that hears directly from Ontarians about what needs to be changed in our group homes.”

Irwin Elman, Ontario’s advocate for children and youth services, echoed Taylor’s call for an “open, public and transparent” review of children’s residential services and urged the government to ensure young people are actively involved in the process.

“By opening up the discussion to the public, by centering the discussion on the experiences of children and young people, it allows us to come together in a different way,” he said. “And it allows us not to make decisions...around how much money we have, but what’s the right thing to do?”

The ministry’s group home review is the second formal look into child protection services this year. Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk is conducting a “value for money” audit of child welfare services as part of her 2015 annual report to be released in December. The last provincial value for money audit of children’s aid was in 2006.

The Star’s examination of serious occurrence reports is part of an ongoing investigation that has found that a disproportionate number of children in care in Toronto are black, fewer than half of Ontario’s Crown wards graduate from high school, and many children in care are on psychotropic and behaviour-altering drugs for conditions that may not have been properly diagnosed.

The Star also used ministry data to show how children in care are treated differently depending on which of the province’s 46 children’s aid societies has jurisdiction.